Major Infrastructure Project Under Implementation from National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)

The Government of India in 2017 launched India’s largest highway infrastructure program ‘Bharatmala Pariyojana’, an umbrella program for National Highway development at scale that India had never witnessed before. The Pariyojna aims to develop 34,800 km of National Highway corridors. Bharatmala Pariyojana program marks a landmark shift in the infrastructure philosophy of the nation, expanding the scope from connectivity to efficiency.

As a part of Bharatmala Pariyojana 27 Greenfield Expressways and Access Controlled Corridors and of length around 10,000 km have been envisaged and are under different stages of implementation. The objective of these flagship corridors of length is to connect hinterland & emerging economic regions to usher in growth and prosperity and reduce travel time of freight and passenger traffic.

Bharatmala Pariyojana will move the logistics needle in the country by doubling the speed of road freight movement from ~40 km/hr to ~80 km/hr. Completion of the highway corridor network planned under Bharatmala Pariyojana will also significantly reduce cost of logistics.

Bharatmala Pariyojana will provide NH connectivity to 550 districts and will be a major driver for economic growth in the country. Special attention has been paid to fulfill the connectivity requirements of backward and tribal areas, areas of economic activity, places of religious and tourist interest, border areas, coastal areas and international connectivity routes with neighboring countries. 

Challenges in Infrastructure Development

Development of national mega-infrastructure projects such as Bharatmala Pariyojna needs a lot of planning rooted in scientific logic and strong implementation systems to realize the ambitious vision of the Government. 

Identification of Corridors: Identification of critical and important corridors was a challenging exercise which was undertaken based on scientific origin – destination survey of traffic and forecasting supported by assessment of macro-economic variables.

Optimization of Corridors: Optimization of alignments to minimize commute time is another challenge that is surmounted through leveraging of technological tools like LiDAR, GIS to understand the topographical opportunities and challenges of the corridors. Significant emphasis is laid in ensuring minimal ecological impact of the highway development and at the same time reducing the distance and time of travel between key economic clusters, while improving connectivity to hitherto poorly connected regions of the country.

Land Acquisition: Timely land acquisition, forest clearances, working permissions and state support for projects are the biggest challenges. Land acquisition has been a major cause of delay of NH projects. Therefore, it was decided that no project shall be awarded unless minimum 80-90 per cent land is acquired for the project. All the clearances for forest, wildlife or environment and estimates for utility shifting are also taken before the project is awarded.

Implementation of Projects: The implementation of program requires coordination with multiple stakeholders viz., multiple state governments, central government agencies such as MoEFCC, Ministry of Railways, and private ecosystem of constructors and service providers to ensure expedited issue identification and resolution to fast-track program implementation.

Future Outlook:

Economic growth is closely linked with the growth of National Highway Infrastructure in the country. The Government of India has been very encouraging and has shown confidence in the roads & highway sector.

The Government of India has a vision that looks beyond just developing highways and includes the holistic and integrated development of the infrastructure framework. Initiatives such as ‘PM Gati Shakti’ – National Master Plan for Multi-modal Connectivity, brings together infrastructure schemes of various Ministries and State Governments like Bharatmala, Sagarmala, inland waterways, dry/land ports, UDAN etc. to improve connectivity & make Indian businesses more competitive. 

The multi-modal connectivity will provide integrated and seamless connectivity for movement of people, goods and services from one mode of transport to another. It will facilitate the last mile connectivity of infrastructure and reduce travel time for people.

To strengthen the country’s logistics infrastructure, 35 Multi- Modal Logistics Parks (MMLPs) are being developed by NHAI through the National Highways Logistics Management Limited (NHLML), 100% owned SPV of NHAI. 

These MMLPs have been conceptualized to be set up at strategic locations to enable efficient inter-modal freight movement and formalize interface between logistics service providers, service users and regulators thereby enhancing the efficiency of the Indian logistics sector. MMLPs will maximize efficiency of goods movement across the country and reduce logistic cost from 14% to 8-9% across the country.

Parvatmala Pariyojna, the National Ropeways Development Program is another project being implemented by NHAI, which envisions development of ropeways and provide connectivity to hilly areas, inaccessible areas, religious places and congested urban areas to develop tourism & transportation and facilitate last mile connectivity. NHAI has initiated work on ropeway projects in Kedarnath, Varanasi, Ujjain and Paonta Sahib.

Hits: 1